A buzz!

Finally....our first bee-hive is ready and sitting in the garden, rather empty, waiting for a few lost bees to take up residence. Or even better, a swarm. Or failing that, we'll have to buy a nucleus of bees. With a bit of luck we may have a little honey by the end of September, but the priority for now is to establish a population.

Just two pretty pictures: A curious fox and our Wintry garden

The sunshine is free...

...but our Solar PV system wasn't!

However, we are now generating up to 3,000W (3kWh) of electricity per hour, IF it is bright and sunny, and only between the hours of say 11am and 2pm.
But as the days get longer and the sun climbs higher in the sky the frequency and intensity will increase. On a cloudy foggy Winter morning the system produces some 200-300W, with other words we can just about run 2 or 3 100W light bulbs off it. The maximum capacity of our system is just under 4kWh - our typical daily household usage is around 24kW. And of course we use most electricity early in the mornings and in the evenings, after dark, when our Solar PV system produces absolutely nothing: Zilch, zip, zero, null. Never mind.

It all depends on the weather, of course, but based on averages the prediction is that our Solar PV system will save us approx. £250-£300p.a. in the cost of purchasing electricity. In addition to that we get paid (this is called the Feed-in-Tariff or FID) 41.3p for each kWh we produce and use ourselves, and 44.1p for each kWh we export into the national Grid at times we produce more than we use. And that FID is guaranteed for 25 years and Tax Free. My only worry is that it is guaranteed by The Government... and I think our politicians have been know to break one or two promises to 'the people' in the past - but let's be positive for now!

Guests in Homelands bed and breakfast can see the sun at work by looking at the Inverter in the Guest Utility Room, when they get some fresh milk or browse for maps and walking routes.  A Solar inverter or PV inverter is a type of electrical inverter that is made to change the direct current (DC) electricity from a photovoltaic array into alternating current (AC) for use with home appliances and feeding back into the National Grid. The Inverter displays the current (in both meanings of the word) generated in real time: So the moment the sun pops up from behind a cloud the reading jumps up - a wonderful sight. And your milk is kept cool.

Our system has been installed by GSM Ltd from Gloucester - they have had a bit of a struggle installing this system as it was done during one of the worst winter months the UK has experienced for some 30 years. GSM specialises in air conditioning, heat pumps, ventilation systems, and renewable energy systems.

RAGWORT IN OUR GARDEN: AN ALIEN INVADER OR A BENEFICIAL PLANT?

Ragwort  is a very common wild flower in the family Asteraceae that is native to northern Eurasia, usually in dry, open places, and has also been widely distributed as a weed elsewhere. We find a fair bit of ragwort in the Homelands garden.

Pollination is by a wide range of bees, flies and moths and butterflies. Over a season, one plant may produce 2,000 to 2,500 yellow flowers in 20- to 60-headed, flat-topped corymbs. This number of seeds produced may be as large as 75,000 to 200,000, although in its native range in Eurasia very few of these would grow into new plants and research has shown that most seeds do not travel a great distance from the parent plant.

Ragwort can be found along road sides and waste grounds, and grows in all cool and high rainfall areas. In our garden it is trying to overtake our lovely wild flower meadow – but as we keep pulling out any new plants it will not succeed!

Ragwort is best known as the food of caterpillars of the Cinnabar moth Tyria jacobaeae. (See illustration –photo taken in our garden)They absorb alkaloids from the plant and become distasteful to predators , a fact advertised by the black and yellow warning colours. The red and black, day-flying adult moth is also distasteful to many potential predators. The moth is used as a control for ragwort in countries in which it has been introduced and become a problem, like New Zealand and the western United States. In both countries, the ragwort flea beetle (Longitarsus jacobaeae) has been introduced to combat the plant.

In the UK, where the plant is native, at least 30 species of invertebrate, many of them rare or declining, are entirely dependent on ragwort as a food source and hundreds of species will feed on its nectar, making it a vitally important component of the native flora.

Ragwort contains many different alkaloids, making it poisonous to animals. Ragwort is of concern to people who keep horses and cattle. In areas of the world where ragwort is a native plant, such as here in Britain, documented cases of proven poisoning are rare. Horses do not normally eat fresh ragwort due to its bitter taste. However, It loses this taste when dried and can become a danger in hay. The result, if sufficient quantity is consumed, can be irreversible cirrhosis of the liver. Animals may also resort to the consumption of ragwort when there is shortage of food. In rare cases they can even become addicted to it. Sheep, in marked contrast, eat small quantities of the plant with relish. Sheep and goats suffer the same process of liver destruction but at a reduced rate to horses and pigs. They seem to benefit slightly from eating it; as the alkaloids kill worms in the sheep's stomach.

In the United Kingdom, Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) is one of the five plants named as an injurious weed under the provisions of the Weeds Act 1959. The word injurious in this context indicates that it could be harmful to agriculture not that it is dangerous to animals, as all the other injurious weeds listed are non-toxic. Under the terms of this act, a land occupier can be required by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to prevent the spread of the plant. However, the growth of the plant is not made illegal by the act and there is no statutory obligation for control placed upon landowners in general.

In ancient Greece and Rome a supposed aphrodisiac was made from the plant; it was called satyrion.

Also, the leaves can be used to obtain good green dye, and yellow dye is obtained from the flowers.

Eco-logs for the wood burners

When looking into all issues relating to fire wood and wood burners we came across this local company: The Briquette Company, from Cheltenham. They produce 'Easy-Logs' made out of sawdust. As they offer a free 10Kg trial bag we decide to test the product.

The product is sawdust briquettes: Locally produced premium quality wood briquettes branded as Easy-Logs. They manufacture the briquettes from locally sourced, environmentally friendly clean 100% recycled sawdust which can be purchased on-line directly through our website as well as through local stockists. It is claimed that Briquettes are a greener, better more sustainable solid fuel to traditional logs for your Log Burner, Wood Burning Stove, Open Fire and Chimenea.  Beautifully packaged Easy-Logs are more economic, burn better, are more environmentally friendly and produce less harmful pollutants than traditional firewood logs.

It was easy to claim our free bag, and we placed a follow-up order of 25 bags to help us through the Winter with our temporary shortage of seasoned logs, as we have only just started producing our own wood.

The online ordering and delivery process is efficient, and the product looks good and smells lovely. (Think fresh sawdust – which is exactly what it is!). We are using some 6-7 ‘Easy-Logs’ each time we light the woodburner, with a few bits of newspaper, some kindling and just one small block of firelighter. Within minutes you have a roaring fire and a lot of heat, after which we start adding our own logs. Sometimes if we neglect the fire we add a few more ‘Easy-Logs’ to quickly re-establish it.

Nothing beats a proper seasoned (=dry) wood log, in our view, but as a supplementary product used together with traditional fire wood we think we will continue to use ‘Easy-Logs’ as a stand-by and supplementary product.

Small scale short rotation coppicing

Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) is trees or other plants  grown as an energy crop. This wood solid biomass can be used in our woodburners. SRC uses high yield varieties of poplar and willow. Poplar is generally planted for visual variation rather than being a commercial crop. However as Erik who runs the B&B with his wife Nikki grew up in the Dutch ‘Populierenlaan’ or ‘Polar Lane’ in an Amsterdam suburb, poplar is a choice of fire wood with an emotional connection. Species are selected for their acceptance of varying climate and soil conditions.   

SRC can be planted on a wide range of soil types from heavy clay to sand including land reclaimed from gravel extraction and colliery spoil. Saplings are left to grow for a year and then coppiced. The first three years are part of the establishment phase and do not yield much dry matter.

After four years the trees will be ready for harvest. Harvests take place on a two to five year cycle, shorter for willow and longer for poplar, and are carried out in winter after leaf fall when the soil is frozen. The established root system and the nutrients stored in the roots and stumps guarantee vigorous growth for the shoots. The trees can be harvested for up to thirty years before needing to be replanted.

SRC has a low greenhouse gas impact as any carbon dioxide released in power generation will have been sequestered by the plantation over just a few years.

Biomass crops such as SRC willow show higher levels of biodiversity in comparison with intensive arable and grassland crops. SRC has a higher water consumption than agricultural crops. As most of our willows and poplars are planted at the lower end of our garden, where it is very boggy, they help with soil conditioning and drainage as well.

To be fair we do not want to give the impression we have a massive plantation – all we grow is some 15 willow trees and 10 poplar trees. They will not produce sufficient wood to keep both our wood burners supplied – but it is a start! The remainder of our fire wood comes from other areas of our garden and we will buy in a quantity of cordwood from a local tree surgeon as well. This cordwood will be processed by ourselves, using a chainsaw and a splitting maul. And good old-fashioned hard labour.

The willows are taken as cuttings from our beautifull mature willow, and the poplars have been purchased from Bowhayes Trees, Ottery St. Mary, Devon. 

Saving energy costs with a woodburner

We have had some independent energy advise from a local Charity, Vision21. The various suggestions made and questions raised made us look again at a planned investment in new technology (An Air Source Heat pump) - see the previous post.
It actually made a lot of sense to go back to basics and utilise our (free) supply of fire wood from our garden for space heating, replacing a fire place (80% of energy produced  lost through the chimney) with a woodburner (Only 20% of energy produced is lost through the chimney).
With other words: A woodburner is a very efficient space heater and adds atmosphere and a focal point to our living spaces. We choose a 'Westfire Unique 26' for our Family Room - it looks great and throws out a massive amount of heat. Later this year we will replace an open fire in a small sitting room with an inset woodburner.
In a next post we will go into more detail about producing fire wood, the ins and outs of logging at home, short rotation cropping, types of wood that are suitable, and what tools are required.